Jack Tier, Vol. 2

Jack Tier Volume 2 is the second volume of James Fenimore Cooper’s 1848 sea novel, working in the nautical fiction tradition that Cooper had been one of the founders of in American literature. The novel was originally serialized in Graham’s Magazine before being published in book form, with the two volume structure following the conventional publishing format of the period. Cooper’s late career work shows him continuing to develop the maritime fiction subgenre that his earlier sea novels had helped establish.

The Jack Tier of the title is one of the central characters whose identity and history drive much of the wider plot. Cooper’s late sea novels often involve the kind of character mystery and identity revelations that the genre rewards, with the slow unfolding of who particular characters actually are and what their wider histories involve providing structural anchor points across the page count. Volume 2 carries the story to its conclusion through the various reveals and resolutions that the first volume had been setting up.

The novel is set during the Mexican American War period of the late 1840s, which Cooper was witnessing as a contemporary observer rather than as a historical writer working with documentary sources from a more distant past. The contemporary setting gives Jack Tier a different flavor from Cooper’s historical novels of the Revolutionary or colonial periods, with the immediate political and military situation providing the wider context that the central characters and their nautical adventures unfold against.

Cooper’s nautical fiction was grounded in his own experience as a young naval officer in the United States Navy in the early 1800s, and his depictions of shipboard life, of the various technical aspects of nineteenth century sailing vessels, and of the wider maritime culture of the period draw on his actual professional knowledge in ways that the more land based historical novels could not always match. Jack Tier shows him at his most directly engaged with the contemporary maritime world he had personally known.

Cooper’s prose is in the formal style of his time, which can take some getting used to. The dialogue is long, the descriptions of nautical detail are extensive, and the political and historical context of the late 1840s American situation that drives the wider plot would have been more immediately familiar to Cooper’s contemporary readers than it is today.

For Cooper completists, for students of nineteenth century American sea fiction, or for readers interested in how Cooper’s late career engaged with contemporary political and military events, Jack Tier is worth knowing. The novel is less famous than the Leatherstocking Tales but represents some of Cooper’s late career work in the nautical fiction tradition. The two volume structure rewards being read in order.